


Rain World IRL

by Lightvsdark777



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games), Rain World (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Timelines, Child Death, Crossover, Dimension Travel, More of a timeline than a fanfiction tbh, Real Life, Sequence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:07:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28098921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightvsdark777/pseuds/Lightvsdark777
Summary: What if Rain World was real? Well, this'll answer that question. If... somewhat.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11





	1. Earth: The Fauna

Ever since the successful recon mission to another dimension, the world we live in was connected to the world the scavengers lived in. And the scavengers along with other organisms from that dimension crossed into ours. Though the organisms from the other dimension did not become established in the wild with stable populations, they became firmly established in our cities. The only organisms that became established within these cities were batflies, squidcadas, noodleflies, centipedes (called arcpedes), eggbugs, lantern mice, dropwigs, lizards, the scavengers themselves, and many others.

### Squidcadas

One would think that because of the favorable conditions our cities had for these organisms, their populations in our world would explode. However, only the population of squidcadas did. Because of the abundance of food in the form of batflies, uneaten human food, stray pets, pigeons, fish, rats and the occasional baby arcpede, squidcadas faced no opponent in the skies above our cities. They coexist peacefully with noodleflies, which hunt larger prey than the squidcadas. In some cities, squidcadas have hunted feral pigeons nearly to extinction and have begun to take their place.

### Noodleflies

After years of breeding and natural selection, people know not to mess with baby noodleflies, for their mothers are always closeby. Though they are passive omnivores that prefer to suck the sap out of trees, the juices out of fruits and the blood of fresh roadkill that they drag out of the street, noodleflies are intelligent enough to recognize faces and smells, and combined with the relentless stalking and eventual killing of whoever or whatever incurred their ire has garnered them a fearsome reputation. For example, the spoiled teenage child of what one might call a 'Karen' killed an already weakened baby noodlefly that was hit by a car unaware that the mother was watching. Several weeks later, during a baseball game the child was attending, the mother that now had two children picked the teen's face out of the thousands that were attending the game and killed him several moments after seeing his face. This incident has inspired several documentaries on the dangers of tampering with the new biota of the cities, including one titled " **Motherhood Conquers All** ".

### Centipedes

Several years of breeding and natural selection through the cities has resulted in the centipedes of the other dimension (called arcpedes by humanity) being found in relative abundance. These 'arcpedes' are named as such due to the fact that they utilize electricity. They are so common in fact that aside from the scavengers, the arcpedes are often the first organisms from the other dimension seen by people who enter the city. The arcpede's entire body acts as an organic electric coil which is capable of killing an elephant if the individual responsible is large enough, but only functions if both ends are connected to its prey. Certain individuals are also born with sets of wings along their body segments, but the energy required to fly stunts their growth, forcing them to grow to about as long as a car. In terms of size, individuals typically grow to as long as a bus, and though even longer individuals with shiny red carapaces have been reported, these sightings have never been confirmed. Though the adults are highly dangerous, individuals regardless of age are surprisingly palatable and nutritious when eaten. As a result, some homeless folks have set up various wet markets around the world that serve both centipedes and other palatable creatures from the other dimension, such as batflies, squidcadas, eggbugs, shellbugs (snails), lantern mice, dropwigs, lizards, and stillborn or dead noodleflies. This palatability has also given birth to the infamous **Boston Crown Without Jewels** , which is often considered to be the largest wet market ever founded.

### Eggbugs

Known for typically carrying around six brightly colored eggs on their backs, the aptly named eggbugs are highly skittish creatures, and existing in the dimension of man did not help. They are typically scavengers and omnivores, eating uneaten human food, pigeons, rats, and other detritus in the city streets, including garbage and occasionally raiding wet markets in search of food. Eggbugs only drop the eggs from their backs when killed or when the eggs are about to hatch. If hatched from eggs that have been collected by humans, eggbugs are surprisingly loyal companions that have some of the behaviors of cats with the excitability of springer spaniels. Eggbugs are also the only organisms from the alternate dimension that have developed thriving populations in locations such as forests and deserts, though they typically prefer the former. In this case, they are considered a highly invasive species that are to be killed on sight and any eggs found in the wild either collected and brought into the city or destroyed. So far, only two such 'feral' populations of eggbugs exist in the dimension man lives in and are known as **The Redwood Berrybacks** and **The New Mongolian Empire**. The former has caused the extinction of one of the native species of animals in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

### Snails

Among the myriad of creatures that colonized man's cities, shellbugs (snails) are the ones with a reputation that one would call neutral at best. Shellbugs are simple creatures, feeding on algae and garbage at the bottom of lakes and the shorelines of cities, and if they're located in sewers, their diet is mainly whatever gets flushed down the toilet. Despite this, these 'sewer gremlin' specimens seem to be no worse for wear, and instead seem to be thriving inside man's sewers. Most people will advise against picking them up, as shellbugs can create a nasty burst using pressure alone without harming themselves, with injuries from this ranging from broken hands to even decapitation. As a result, shellbugs tend to be left very much alone by the general populace. But that doesn't stop the occasional mischievous member of a scavenger tribe from dropping them into dumpsters before people put trash in them.

### Lantern Mice

Lantern mice are nocturnal creatures, preferring to come out when light levels are very low. Because man’s cities are flooded with light 24/7, lantern mice rarely ever come out, instead opting to live alongside the shellbugs and black lizards that call the sewers and subway tunnels of man’s cities home. Lantern mice are scavenging creatures, preferring to eat fallen fruit, garbage and carcasses. They can also get by on substances that would poison earthly lifeforms and even organisms from the dimension they are native to, so eating whatever edible thing they find either on the ground or floating through sewer water is not only very easy for them, but costs less energy than going to the surface to find food. Though underground habitats for lantern mice have been built by people who felt bad for the conditions lantern mice live in and have been colonized by these creatures, a vast majority of lantern mice in mankind’s dimension live their lives in the tunnels of man perfectly fine.

### Dropwigs

Ever since their establishment in the world of man, dropwigs have been the bane of urban explorers and common folk worldwide. They are notorious among humanity for taking objects and placing them right under where they're due to strike and attack anyone unwary enough to walk under them to either pass by or pick up the bait. Dropwigs also set up breeding colonies hundreds strong in certain buildings, but these colonies typically coalesce once a year during the winter months. And though extermination efforts have been attempted in the past, dropwigs always seem to pop back up in cities they were thought to be extinct in. They have been compared to meal beetles in this aspect. This attribute was among one of the causes of the near collapse of the Kim regime in North Korea following an incident known as the **Assembly Hall Massacre** , where a dropwig breeding colony set up shop in the Mansudae Assembly Hall and resulted in the death of several government officials, including the ruler at the time, Kim Yo-Jong. This particular breeding colony has since been unintentionally relocated to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, which is now declared off-limits when the colony (which has grown larger) gathers.

### Jetfish

Jetfish, being strictly aquatic creatures, were limited in their colonization in man's cities and world. As a result, the jetfish colonized the sewers and artificial lakes and rivers in cities and occasionally seas. As a result, they only proliferated in the Mediterranean Sea, the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Great Lakes, and the East River plus its other connecting rivers. In the sewers, though they just barely get by just fine, albino variants are found in them more frequently. Though jetfish are occasionally caught as bycatch by fishing boats, this has not made any noticeable impacts on their population. While their unique shape makes them a favorite for public aquariums, some aquariums do not house them due to their jetting behavior, while others have removed them for legal reasons. One such legal reason happened with the South Carolina Aquarium where a jetfish named Sally that was located in a tank with an open top that people could look into jetted out of the water and smacked a small child in the face. With its entire body. Though the aquarium is still open to this day, it has experienced a dramatic drop in visitors following the incident, even with the tank containing Sally now being covered with reinforced glass.

### Leeches

Wherever leeches may be on Earth, the corpses of the animals they drowned will not be far behind. Out of all of the organisms from the other dimension, leeches are by far the most widespread, having colonized every last permanent source of freshwater in the world, including rivers, lakes, and swamps. Their larger cousins, the sea leeches, are also as prevalent, but are most heavily concentrated in the coastlines of the indian subcontinent. Leeches congregate in groups of up to ten, with sea leeches being in groups of five. They have fine control over their buoyancy, and use this control to their advantage when attacking prey, attaching to it and becoming heavier in an instant, instantly submerging unwary prey such as seabirds. Once a prey has drowned, leeches will immediately attach to the drowned prey and drain it of their bodily fluids before swimming away. Though seabirds have learned to feed on these leeches, this newfound predator has only slightly decreased their numbers. Leeches on earth have learned to not go after both aquatic creatures and marine mammals for obvious reasons with the former and the fact that it both takes too long and there's usually not enough to weigh one down with the latter. Leeches have also been involved with numerous incidents where swimmers or people who ended up overboard were drowned, with these incidents being too numerous to list just one.

### Grappling Worms

Typically found in high up places where the hope for landing on solid ground is unreliable at best in their home dimension, grappling worms not only survived in the native dimension of man, but thrived. Grappling worms earned their name due to the unique adaptation of being able to fire two retractable probosci from both ends of its body. These probosci, though one is used for feeding, effectively anchor a grappling worm between two walls or poles and can stretch five times its body length. These probosci are so strong that a single grappling worm can suspend ten tons in weight effortlessly. Anything over this will cause them to release and fall. Since their introduction into man's cities, there is no such thing as a short supply of grappling worms. Though solitary in their home dimension, grappling worms native to man's dimension now congregate in groups called 'junglegyms' that can sometimes reach up the entire sides of two buildings side by side. These gatherings are popular among parkour experts, as it allows them to scale otherwise unscalable buildings.

### Garbage Worms

Like leeches and jetfish, garbage worms are among the few organisms from the other dimension that live on Earth in areas that are not considered urban. To be more specific, while leeches have freshwater sources such as rivers and lakes and jetfish have certain seas, garbage worms have colonized places such as landfills and junkyards with very little competition aside from scavengers and other organisms that occasionally find themselves there, including lizards. Garbage worms are typically passive, if bizarre-looking creatures that will occasionally snatch up rats and pieces of debris up to the size of a car door before retreating underground for minutes at a time and retreat underground if approached. Their behavior of snatching debris has given them a bit of a bad name due to some occasionally snatching away phones right from the hands of the unwary, never to be seen again. However, if attacked, the garbage worm turns from passive to violent in an instant, and will either fling their attacker up to twenty feet away or attempt to drown them if water is nearby. Many careless humans have lost their lives to garbage worms this way, and most people advise against bothering them as a result. Some workers at the places these creatures inhabit have even installed fines for harassing garbage worms.

### Hazers

Hazers, due to their highly sensitive preferences in terms of water to live in, are rarely found in the wild on Earth and are most commonly seen in aquariums and in the possession of fishkeepers. Though squid-like in appearance, hazers have more in common with lantern mice than actual squids. When thrown or killed, hazers spew out a navy blue cloud of gaseous ink that analysis has shown to be composed of countless gametes suspended in water droplets. Thrown hazers rarely survive this process, but ones that do are found more often on Earth. Hazers are also amphibious, using a series of muscular feet similar to those of gastropods to ‘hop’ around and typically in the direction of bodies of water. On Earth, hazers are typically found in public swimming pools globally (including mysteriously appearing in pools aboard cruise liners) and in the rivers of certain tropical cities, including Key West. Hazers are active predators, eating prey items that can range in size from the size of a scallop to the size of a 10-month-old baby. The latter end of the size range was, unfortunately, realized in 2068 when a baby of a similar age was left unattended in a public pool in Chile that was labeled ‘hazer-friendly’. One of the hazers was known among visitors for nipping the fingers of swimmers. As some put it, one moment the baby was happily floating in the water comfortably seated in a swim ring, the next moment the baby was out of the ring and underwater with the hazer eating its legs. Since this incident, strict regulations have been placed on ‘hazer-friendly’ pools, including not allowing anyone under 13 into the pool for safety reasons and not feeding the hazers human food. Unfortunately, the aforementioned baby did not survive the incident.

### Coalescipedes

Coalescipedes are, individually, among the smallest creatures to have originated from the other dimension, with a single individual being roughly the size of a housecat. However, coalescipedes are rarely found all alone, and if you find one, there’s a non-zero chance that there are others nearby. Coalescipedes display a unique form of swarming behavior by attaching themselves to others of their kind, forming what are called ‘conga lines’ by humans. On their own, coalescipedes are skittish creatures that shy away from the light and get by on small insects, but in ‘conga lines’ they lose this aversion to light and can mob and overwhelm creatures the size of elephants. Genetic evidence has shown that at some point, the ancestral arcpede evolved from a mutation where several coalescipedes were born merged together at the head and butt. On Earth, coalescipedes have taken up residence in urban areas that do not receive much light such as sewers, large basements, abandoned subway tunnels, and artificial habitats made for lantern mice. Their swarm-dependent light aversion has given rise to several urban legends surrounding them, with some such legends claiming that during blackouts, coalescipedes can form ‘conga lines’ of over a thousand individuals. While in reality, coalescipede ‘conga lines’ rarely reach longer than thirty individuals, a ‘conga line’ that was a hundred individuals long was reported during **The Rio de Janeiro Blackout of ‘87** , where the ‘megaconga’ was found clambering atop the Christ the Redeemer statue to get to a cyan lizard.

### Porcupine Spiders

Porcupine Spiders are larger, non-swarming relatives of the coalescipedes that have survived fairly well in the world of man. Like the coalescipedes, porcupine spiders prefer to live in areas that do not receive much light, but their preferences are much broader than their smaller relatives, being found in areas with dim light such as theaters, museums, and certain maintenance tunnels. Despite what their name suggests, porcupine spiders do not have any ability to spin webs and have six legs. Porcupine spiders are stealthy hunters, leaping towards prey without warning from seemingly illogical angles and appearing to vanish into the darkness once prey is caught. Despite the loss of their swarming behavior, porcupine spiders instead hunt as packs of up to seven individuals, rarely hunting alone. If one member of the pack is downed, another member can bite the downed member with highly specialized fangs which essentially act like defibrillators, temporarily reviving the downed spider for up to five minutes. These revived members split off from the pack to seek shelter and heal their injuries, only truly dying if subjected to flashes of light from the fruit of certain plants from the dimension they hail from. They are also highly protective of any claimed territory, killing or driving away anything that intrudes on their stomping grounds regardless of light level. This behavior was first displayed on earth in 2071 at a kindergarten that had become the nesting grounds for a pack of porcupine spiders overnight. About an hour into the day the students and teachers arrived, the pack was disturbed from their slumber and attacked both staff and student alike. Twenty people died that day, with three quarters of them being students. After the incident, the pack was exterminated, and protocols were put in place in schools across the globe to ensure another incident like that didn’t happen again.

### Spitter Spiders

Spitter Spiders are solitary relatives of the porcupine spider named for their unique method of hunting prey. Spitter spiders first stalk prey from a distance, and once close enough, they fire projectiles towards their intended prey. These projectiles have sharp mouthparts and have an organ that takes up much of their interior that is filled with a chemical several times stronger than propofol, a chemical that was supposedly involved in the death of Michael Jackson. After some studies, it was revealed that spitter spiders live in a symbiotic relationship with a distant relative of leeches from the other dimension. These ‘dart maggots’ get some of the spitter spider’s food in exchange for the spitter spider getting prey in easier ways. On Earth, spitter spiders share a wider range of environments than porcupine spiders, as they are more tolerant of light. Spitter spiders are known for resting atop the roofs of skyscrapers, and being knocked off from such great heights barely fazes them. Most spitter spiders are in captivity on earth, as hospitals have found a way to use the chemical the ‘dart maggots’ create as an anesthetic to put patients under before surgery. About 30% of all spitter spiders on earth are considered ‘wild’, and some of them are ‘dart farms’ that escaped from hospitals that use them for their dart maggots.


	2. Earth: The Lizards

### Green and Pink Lizards

The myriad lizard-like creatures from the other dimension have easily colonized man's cities. After years of natural selection, attacks by them on humans are rare at best, and infrequent at worst. Lizards of all kinds are strict carnivores, preying on anything smaller than them and occasionally other lizards, regardless of type. They typically live in the alleys of man's cities and make their nest either underground, in sewers, in storm drains, in artificial nesting areas constructed by charitable people, or in the very alleyways they call home. If an egg is found and hatched under the custody of a human or multiple humans, these 'tamed' lizards are loyal, if huge, companions to the bitter end. They also become 'tamed' if wild specimens are fed repeatedly, but are less loyal than the 'homeborn' lizards and will leave their 'owners' if it benefits them without a second thought. The green lizards are by far one of the most common variants of these lizard-like creatures, and are typically known for being considered slow and lazy by the general public. However, like all lizards, green lizards have jaws that can pulverize bricks and are strong enough to drag a truck with some effort. Though they can crawl through tunnels, they are too heavy to climb up walls and flagpoles, and will sometimes break through chain link fences to chase prey. Pink lizards are smaller than their green brethren, but are more mobile, being capable of climbing flagpoles, cables and chain link fences without even trying. Pink lizards are also more hostile to humans instead of placid unless provoked like their green brethren, with younger individuals actively stalking them from a distance, but these hunts tend to be successful when their target is a vagabond. Their pole climbing behavior also resulted in the circumstances leading to the famous photo taken in Sheboygan, Wisconsin called **The Unknowing Usurpers** , which depicts a pink lizard with a dead bald eagle in its mouth perched atop a flagpole.

### Blue and White Lizards

Among all the lizards that now reside in the native dimension of humanity, blue lizards are by far the smallest of the lot. And that's saying something because they're seven feet long. They are also the most mobile of their kin, with blue lizards being found inside ventilation systems, under floors, in ceilings, and even under dumpsters. They also have pads on their feet similar to those of geckos, allowing them to climb up the smoothest of surfaces, including glass. These lizards also have a chameleon-like tongue with tips that are covered in microscopic barbs that effortlessly pierce flesh and make the tongue nearly impossible to pull off. These lizards also tend to be more dangerous than their brethren, as they make their nests in cluttered areas close to people, including attics, messy walk-in closets and other such areas, and tend to retaliate violently if disturbed when sleeping or tending to their young. White lizards have similar pads and tongues, but the tongues are much longer, enabling a single white lizard to snatch a pigeon out of the sky from nearly fifty feet away. However, they are larger than blue lizards and are unable to enter buildings through the vents. They also have the ability to camouflage most of their body in a fashion similar to that of a cuttlefish, being able to change the color and texture of most of their bodies except for their head, which is only capable of changing color and not texture. This ability has been linked to the cause of **The Bogotá Disappearances of 2051** , where a mated pair of white lizards were hunting humans (typically inebriated people and the homeless) to feed their young. Once the mated pair was found to be responsible, they were both killed and their young either killed or adopted by compassionate folks.

### Yellow Lizards

Among all the lizards that live alongside humanity in his cities, yellow lizards are the ones subjected to the most questions due to their complex communication and pack behaviors. Yellow lizards always reside in packs of up to ten individuals strong. Every member of the pack communicates with each other using a mixture of body language and flashing multicolored lights on their antennas. As a result of observations from individuals, it is believed that yellow lizards are not only sentient, but sapient like scavengers. While evidence of culture has been observed in very large packs (greater than 20 individuals), these ‘cultures’ are less religious and more superstitious, such as certain structures being the birthplace of all life. Like blue lizards, yellow lizards are very mobile, with pack members being found inside ventilation systems and in the ceilings of certain buildings. They can also climb poles like their pink brethren and on walls like blue lizards, but this climbing is restricted to rough surfaces such as brick walls. In packs, which can occasionally be thirty individuals strong, status is typically identified by the length of their antennae, with the individual having the longest antennae being the undisputed alpha. These antennae are also the only parts of their body that can grow back if cut off or damaged. The largest pack still in operation is sixty-five individuals strong and is known as **The Dragons of Riga** , with the pack holding sway throughout the entire city. In this case, subalphas report to the true alpha of the entire pack and enforce the alpha’s will in areas of the city too far away for the alpha to reach. This pack is also apparently on the border to developing a true religion.

### Black Lizards

Black lizards, though successfully introduced into the native dimension of man, fared poorly on the surface due to their complete lack of eyes. Their keen sense of hearing was another factor that caused them to fare poorly on the surface, with the deafening roar of cars drowning out other sounds and even deafening them. As a result, most black lizards are found in underground urban areas, including sewers, spacious basements, abandoned underground railways, wine cellars and especially maintenance tunnels. These areas tend to house other creatures that prefer subterranean environments, such as lantern mice, shellbugs and the occasional jetfish. In these underground environments in man's cities, both black lizards and their prey can be found in relative abundance. Their lack of eyes does not make them any less dangerous, as their long whiskers combined with their keen sense of hearing allows them to pick up the sound of a rock falling to the floor on the other end of a tunnel complex. Their environmental preference and their keen senses were both key factors in **The Casablanca Tunnel Incident of 2060** , where a sudden lockdown caused a crew of maintenance workers to become trapped in a tunnel network that housed several nesting black lizards. Out of the twenty individuals trapped inside the tunnel during the lockdown, only one made it out alive, but with severe injuries and was eventually confined to a wheelchair.

### Salamanders

Gillmanes (salamanders) are the only amphibious lizards among their terrestrial kin, and are often joked about being the weird uncle of the lizards. Indeed, they spend most of their lives underwater, being capable of holding their breath for nearly two hours before needing to come up for air. Though they could in theory remain underwater indefinitely because of the fact that they have gills, their gills do not function on land, and their lungs become waterlogged if they breathe in water. For a gillmane, the sensation of drowning is uncomfortable but not lethal, and cough up whatever water gets in their lungs when they come on land. A gillmane can also spend up to five hours on land before their gills begin to dry out and shrivel up, forcing them to alternate between living underwater and living on land. Gillmanes live in the same areas that their preferred prey items, the jetfish, reside, but rarely ever make forays into sewers. Despite their preference of prey, they are still predators that eat whatever is smaller than them, including humans. Surprisingly, like their terrestrial blue and white kin, they have long tongues with microscopic barbs on the ends to catch prey. If no large bodies of water are available, a gillmane will search for any amount of water large enough to house its head with, and will even accept water from passerby if desperate enough. This behavior also led to an incident in Ararat, Australia where one such desperate gillmane took up residence in a filled kiddie pool and refused to leave. This incident caused several injuries and the death of a small child.

### Red Lizards

If gillmanes are considered the weird uncles of the lizards, then the red lizards are considered the black sheep of the lizards. Red lizards are the largest of all lizards and also the most hostile, being apex predators in their native dimension. They also have the unique ability to spit capsules of mildly acidic saliva that explode on impact and stun whatever the red lizard was targeting. Red lizards are typically solitary creatures that fight to the death whenever they meet. During mating season, groups presided over a single large male form, with masses of ten to twenty eggs being laid in hard-to-reach areas and hatching within a week. These young grow quickly, eating whatever they can grab until they become adults and emerge on the surface, which takes two and a half weeks to do. However, these egg masses are preyed upon by other lizards, with few young reaching adulthood. While they were originally uncommon in man's cities and even more uncommon in their native dimension, no living red lizards remain on Earth. Any that travel to man's dimension from their native dimension are quickly dispatched by special squads employed by governments across the world. This amount of hostility towards red lizards stems from an incident in Asia that nearly wiped out the population of an entire city. This incident is widely known as **The Second Nanjing Massacre**. This incident resulted in part due to the reproductive behavior of red lizards, with their young facing little competition in the city of Nanjing and growing to adult size half a week quicker than normal. Dozens of egg masses hatched across the city untouched and the now adult young ravaged the population of the city before aid finally came. It is estimated that this incident wiped out nearly 67% of the city's population, and the rest of the world, in fear of a similar incident happening again, had all red lizards on Earth either relocated to their native dimension or exterminated and their eggs destroyed.

### Cyan Lizards

Known for their impressive jumping abilities, cyan lizards on Earth are typically found in cities with tall skyscrapers, such as Los Angeles and Tokyo. They spend their entire lives high in the air, leaping from building to building, rarely ever falling to the ground below except for when catching prey. Cyan lizards are surprisingly resistant against fall impacts, with one falling from the top of Jeddah Tower and survived no worse for wear, if a bit dazed. Like certain kinds of bowerbirds, cyan lizards make their nests using materials that are a certain color. Though color preference varies between individuals, purple is one of the more common picks among them. They are also very smart, but are about as intelligent as crows, if not slightly smarter than them. They recognize buildings, typically using stairs in those buildings to get to the top floors. With elevators, which they rarely use, middle-aged individuals will recognize which button will take them the farthest up, with even older individuals knowing the floor plan of every building in a city. A combination of this experience plus their placid attitude towards humans has given man an ambivalent, if wary view towards cyan lizards. Cyan lizards have gained some level of notoriety in Japan due to an individual that has been named **Akira** by its denizens. Akira also has the nickname ' **The Otaku Dragon** ', and this nickname is not without reason. During the early 2070's, a young cyan lizard was seen dragging a life-sized plush of Hatsune Miku in the Nendoroid style into an alley. After some investigating, it was found that this cyan lizard in particular had made a nest atop a maid café out of nothing but Hatsune Miku merchandise, including video games, manga, backpacks, shoes, and a dakimakura. After Akira's rise in popularity as a result of the image being shared online, the maid café that Akira has nested on has remodeled itself using the image of Hatsune Miku in Akira's honor. As of 2076, Akira has found a mate that made her nest out of Kagamine Rin & Len merchandise that the public has named **Mikasa**. They nest on top of the same building.


	3. The Slugcats

Slugcats are, in comparison, some of the smallest creatures from their native dimension, standing a head shorter than humans. They have the ability to operate objects as simple as a spear, but nothing more complex than this, and are typically prey items. Only three have ever been seen in their home, and it seems as though they are either unaware of or uninterested in man's dimension. As a result, slugcats are considered an endangered species. The first one, named **Mal-chin** by mankind, is a dull red color, a scar over one of its eyes, and undoubtedly the most physically active. The few people that have seen Mal-chin describe it as always carrying two spears and hunting creatures such as red lizards. The second, named **Chariya** by mankind, is the one most often seen and is the most cordial of the bunch. Chariya is a vibrant yellow color and is most often seen meditating on top of tall spires or among plants. The third, named **Nicomedes** by mankind, is a pure black color except for its glowing white eyes, and is the most mysterious of the three. Most often seen in the darkest of places, Nicomedes rarely interacts with visitors, tending to flee upon being spotted. Though there are three known in the alternate dimension, there have been sightings of a snow white slugcat with black eyes in our dimension, but no photographic evidence exists. What little evidence exists besides word of mouth are collections of fruit being plundered in the night with people finding out in the morning, larger predators such as arcpedes and lizards apparently having been stabbed to death with a spear, and empty arcpede traps that were previously full with only the shell of a supposed catch scattered about.


	4. The Scavenger Tribes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please note that each scavenger tribe was named by humanity.

After mankind made contact with the other dimension, scavengers native to the other dimension were quick to set up shop on Earth. And they came armed to the teeth with spears and other such weapons, though some tribes have learned to use firearms. Among the most widespread of the newcomers from the other dimension, wherever there is a city or a town, a scavenger tribe (or multiple tribes) will have set up shop. Though scavengers on Earth make their home bases in junkyards and other such areas, home bases in alleyways, sewers, spacious basements, and abandoned buildings are not unheard of. Several years after their establishment on Earth, scavengers came into conflict with various local street gangs, with the following incidents giving rise to this saying; "If you wrong one scavenger, you wrong them all". Word gets around with scavengers quickly. For example, if a human kills a scavenger, every member of the tribe that scavenger came from and even ones from rival tribes will hunt down the killer. As a result, numerous street gangs and organizations have gone extinct, including the Hell’s Angels, the Crips, and even the seemingly indomitable Ku Klux Klan. Scavenger tribes also tend to take trophies from great victories over enemies, and many recognizable scavenger tribes have formed from these conflicts, including **The Justiciars of White** , a tribe that has come to be heralded as the one that eliminated the KKK. The Justiciars of White are known for wearing the now blood-spattered garb of the eliminated KKK not for ideological reasons, but to basically say ‘we won against a strong foe’, with tales of the battles fought being passed down through the generations from the older scavengers of the tribe. Practically every tribe on Earth is also known for using spray paint to create elaborate murals that seem to indicate that each tribe has a separate mythology and culture. Five types of tribes exist on Earth, being nomad tribes, toll tribes, stronghold tribes, merchant tribes, and micronation tribes.

### Nomad Tribes

Nomad tribes are the most common tribes on earth. These tribes have no set home base, preferring to wander the city the tribe has claimed as its home. As a result, nomad tribes are the most reminiscent of street gangs on Earth. Though nomad tribes are typically the smallest tribes, they are also the most defensive of the tribes, fighting for their kin and territory like angry broodmothers if the need arises. **The Ebony Syndicate** , a tribe based in Shanghai is one such nomad tribe known for their murals which indicate that they see Jin Mao Tower as sacred ground where they are not permitted to tread.

### Toll Tribes

Toll tribes are sedentary tribes that prefer to stay in one spot, allowing people to pass through their territory only if they pay a fine in anything that the tribe likes. These likes are almost always reflective objects, with tolls accepting payment in the form of anything shiny, ranging from silverware to gold bars. If this toll is not paid, whoever is trying to cross is not permitted to pass. If whoever didn't pay tries to pass anyway, the tribe immediately becomes hostile, attacking the offender with spears and rocks. **The Ruby Brotherhood** , a tribe based on Interstate 35 between Des Moines and Kansas City is one such tribe and is arguably the most passive tribe, preferring to take tolls from individuals on bikes or walking on foot rather than from vehicles.

### Stronghold Tribes

Stronghold tribes are among the most secretive tribes of all, preferring to set up shop in one area and only becoming hostile to outsiders if said outsider sets foot in their home base. **The Denim Butterflies** , a tribe based in an abandoned clothing factory in Baltimore, is perhaps the archetypal stronghold tribe, rarely leaving their established home and only sending out small hunting parties when food is needed.

### Merchant Tribes

Merchant tribes are the most amicable tribes on Earth, with such tribes preferring to trade items that they have accrued with others, preferring to get shiny things like coins in favor of oddities like vulture masks, karma flowers, or even rat kings. The numerous merchant tribes based in Osaka, each of which have their own customs, are all highly unusual merchant tribes due to the fact that they are content with working retail and have set up their home bases in the shopping buildings that they work in, with little apartments being set up for them. And while they are not paid very much, typically getting a few shiny coins for their efforts, they are content with their lifestyle and always work alongside humans.

### Micronation Tribes

Micronation tribes are the only type of tribe not seen in the other dimension, and typically appear in nations that are politically unstable. However, micronation tribes that appear in politically stable areas are rare, but not unheard of. One such micronation tribe is called Yacrines, and has split the already politically unstable nations of Iran and Iraq in two. Though both countries consider Yacrines as a mortal enemy that must be destroyed, refugees have flocked to it due to better living conditions. While the humans in Yacrines practice Islam, the scavengers in the nation practice a religion which the locals call 'Yacrism'. Yacrism focuses on meditation and moderation first and foremost, with its mythology apparently depicting two great deities beneath the earth and in the sky. Scavengers in this nation tolerate the practice of Islam, and it seems as though humanity and scavengers in this nation are on an uneasy alliance.


	5. Rain World

The recon mission was successful in finding a world that humanity could inhabit. With the advent of similar such portals that led to the same dimension being set up across the world, the dimension became inhabited by humanity, with approximately 75% of the dimension becoming inhabited by mankind by 2115. Most of these inhabited areas play host to their own little menagerie of humans and scavengers, with only one not having any scavengers in them. Some places introduced scavengers to regions they weren’t originally living in, with these scavengers developing their own tribes. So far, twelve areas have been inhabited by humans and scavengers, with several more being mapped with drones, yet not inhabited. However, only two of these areas (The Depths, Five Pebbles) have not been extensively mapped beyond a certain point. As a result of the intense rainfall in this dimension, it’s a wonder how humans have survived here. Humans have managed to make a living here with the creation of super-strong structures and the expansion of hibernation areas, with every hibernal den in the human-inhabited regions being connected.

### Outskirts

The Outskirts plays host to a thriving scavenger/human society that is in many ways similar to suburban human civilization on earth. Many of the people that live here have shifted to a hunter/gatherer style of living, emerging from both above-ground homes and megashelters to gather foodstuffs such as blue fruit and occasionally batches of worm grass while hunting larger creatures such as lizards, arcpedes, squidcadas, batflies, eggbugs, and the occasional noodlefly. The local government imposes a strict curfew on the civilian population to ensure that few lives, if any, are lost to the heavy rains. Pole plants are a major danger to the humans that live in this region, as they have to rely on climbing the same poles that the plants mimic to get to certain areas. As a result, pole plants tend to be cut down when spotted or forced to retreat to their underground homes with well-aimed spears. This area also acts as a distribution hub for resources from earth to send to other human settlements in the dimension, including building materials and food.

### Drainage System

The Drainage System, due in part to much of it being submerged, most of its human denizens are equipped with diving suits, flippers, goggles, and oxygen tanks for when the rain begins to flood their area and they need to find a megashelter, but most of the time have oxygen tanks equipped, but not active. Denizens of this area are known among the rest of the areas for the ability to hold their breath for almost five minutes at a time and for the unique ability to eat leeches, whether raw or cooked. Most organisms from earth and the other dimension, sans the squidcadas, find leeches unpalatable. However, these humans have developed the ability to eat leeches, which they actively catch in large swarms. These swarms are then placed in vats of water which are then boiled. After thirty minutes, the leeches are taken out and eaten. Leeches take up over 75% of their diet, with lizards, blue fruits, food from earth, and other extradimensional foodstuffs taking up the other 25%.

### Industrial Complex

The Industrial Complex plays host to a human colony primarily dominated by practitioners of the Shinto religion. While most of this practice in the other dimension is restricted to the Industrial Complex, the religion has some grassroots in the sparsely-populated Chimney Canopy. The natives here practice what could be considered a ‘variant’ of Shinto, with them believing that the original Japanese islands became uninhabitable due to some catastrophic event, forcing its people and various yokai to relocate to a new world where Raijin had a firm grip. The civilization has several domesticated lizards, ranging from green to red. However, red lizards are both feared and hated across every other civilization in the other dimension, and as a result, domesticated red lizards in this society are considered bringers of ill fortune and are thus rarely ever domesticated. The most plentiful domesticated lizard species with this civilization are white lizards, with the civilization considering them to be extensions of Ryūjin, and are thus revered with the same fervor as cattle in India on Earth.

### Garbage Wastes

If there’s one phrase that can describe the people that live in the Garbage Wastes, it would be the following: People make do. The Garbage Wastes plays host to the lowest population of humans in the alternate dimension, with the numbers estimated to be between 100 and 450 men, women, and children. The few people there have set up an uneasy alliance with the scavengers that live there, and human society here can best be considered to be part of the native scavenger tribes. The scavengers give the humans shelter and in exchange, humans give them food that the humans hunt from the environment. While the native scavengers in the wastes have a natural immunity to the myriad toxins and poisons in the environment, the native humans do not. As a result, every single human from the wastes is never seen without wearing a full hazmat suit and a gas mask. Outsiders have often drawn comparisons from the Death Korps of Krieg guardsmen of Warhammer 40,000 fame to the human natives of the garbage wastes as a result. The people here hunt food for the scavengers, but get most of their food and water from supply donations from the neighboring areas, which are the Shoreline, the Industrial Complex, and the Drainage System.

### Shoreline

The people that dwell in the Shoreline region, though not too dissimilar to the inhabitants of the Drainage System in that they both have the ability to eat leeches and constantly wear diving suits, flippers, goggles, and oxygen tanks, but that they can also be considered boat fanatics. Practically every single individual living in the shoreline has a boat of some kind, with anchors that they use to weigh down their boats to keep them from being swept away when the rains come down. Certain pipe areas of the Shoreline are also repurposed for farming various aquatic creatures from the other dimension, which are usually leeches, salamanders, and jetfish. While society on the surface can be considered ‘Mad Max but with boats’ at first glance, leviathans are a serious problem among the inhabitants, and are usually either hunted or given a wide berth. Very few individuals from this area ‘park’ their boats near the can of Looks to the Moon, as those that do typically have their boats confiscated by the people who tirelessly work there and are either found again elsewhere or never recovered at all.

### Shaded Citadel

The people of the Shaded Citadel have effectively domesticated 50% of the lantern mice. They have done this not only for their meat and hide, but for man’s survival in the region. These ‘domestic’ lantern mice are not only as large as cattle, but shine three times as brighter as their wild cousins. Their wild cousins have persisted in the Shaded Citadel with stable population levels, but many of them have fled to the Filtration System, Subterranean, Depths, The Exterior, The Underhang, and the less well-lit sections of the enormous interconnected network of hibernation alcoves that man in the other dimension retreats to when rain begins. In fact, most people in the other dimension live out their lives in this network, which is still expanding to this day. While the ‘spiders’ and coalescipedes persist in this dimension, they are not as numerous as they once were, and it seems that the domesticated lantern mice are influencing this. At the moment, the populations of these creatures are stable, but have declined somewhat. The humans that live here are armed with night-vision goggles, flashlights, riot armor, flares, and flashbang fruits that they only use if the situation requires it.

### Memory Crypts

The people of the Memory Crypts are few and far between, typically consisting of small bands of individuals wearing riot armor and wielding guns such as AK-47s. These individuals typically range up to eight individuals and are very tight-knit, with any individuals that are lost track of are considered lost. This practice and heavy artillery are all combinations of having to share the lands they live in with the vicious miros birds. While the native people of the region typically eat arcpedes when on the surface, they also eat any miros birds that they gun down if they get too close. These groups use the beaks of the miros birds as makeshift swords to defend themselves with and battle trophies. Most of the natives of this region rarely dwell on the surface for more than six hours, preferring to retreat underground once a specific, daily set of tasks are performed. As a result, the natives spend a majority of their lives in the interconnected network that all of humanity that is native to the other dimension retreats underground to once the rain begins to come down. However, during the time they spend above the ground, they get quite a lot done, making the memory crypts safer to pass through than normal. The fact that the birds themselves have not gone extinct in the memory crypts is that the birds have learned to not target large groups of humans and instead go after stragglers.

### Chimney Canopy

Because of the non-aerial nature of humans, a majority of the Chimney Canopy is bereft of humans living in it. Most humans that live here live only on the ground and enclosed areas that do not reach the Sky Islands and The Wall. Humans rarely live higher up the chimneys themselves, and those that do are typically equipped with climbing gear. King Vultures are known to roost in this region, so it was first thought that this region was uninhabited. In fact, the king vultures are among one of the main reasons why humanity has not spread to Five Pebbles and the sky islands. The people in this region live off of the dropwigs, eggbugs, batflies, fallen vulture grubs, and blue fruit to survive when not underground.

### Farm Arrays

Despite the Farm Arrays being one of the most perilous regions for mankind aside from the memory crypts, the farm arrays play host to one of the largest population densities of humans and scavengers in the other dimension in due part to the region’s large size. While most humans in the region live among the various structures stable enough to withstand the rain when not underground, others prefer to live in howdahs not unlike those from earth constructed atop rain deer. These howdahs are typically taken off of the rain deer if it seems like rain is about to arrive. The humans that live here have learned to not only farm and harvest spore puffs to feed to the rain deers and use on the arcpedes, they have also learned to exploit and harvest the treacherous worm grass to eat. By first distracting the worm grass by using live bait such as batflies and immature arcpedes, humans cut down large amounts of the worm grass before the rest of them notice and attack the human. Humans typically harvest most of a patch of worm grass before being forced to flee. This way, worm grass can grow back to what it once was after a rainfall even if only one bud of worm grass remains standing. Despite this, worm grass is one of the leading killers of humans in the farm arrays, with up to twelve people being consumed by the worm grass every day.

### Subterranean

The Subterranean, being one of the regions that receives the least natural light, plays host to fauna that have developed albinism. Many of the organisms that live here are albino, as the near-total lack of light makes pigmentation unnecessary. Humans native to the region have also developed albinism, albeit to a lesser degree. Whereas a majority of the fauna in the subterranean are albino, about 55% of humans native to the region exhibit albinism. When not in the underground ‘city’ that all humans in the other dimension retreat to when the rain begins, the natives typically keep to themselves. Many of the non-albino humans in the region gather around the one large body of water in the region, which plays host to a mated pair of albino jetfish and an albino leviathan that is twice as large as most of the other leviathans in the dimension. The members of the cult are fanatical in their devotion to the being, believing it to be a god. The members of this cult believe that they were chosen to gather the scattered pieces of this deity, which they believe are albino men, women, and children, and bring the pieces to him. The cult also believes that the mated pair of jetfish are the final two pieces of this deity that will rejoin with it once the rest of the pieces are put back in place. The two sides, being the ones that worship the deity and the ones that do not are locked in a constant state of cold war, with no end in sight.

### Filtration System

The Filtration System is the deepest part of the other dimension to be inhabited by mankind, and is considered by the cult in the subterranean to be a gateway to eternal torment. And these beliefs are not unfounded, as the area contains one of the largest populations of black lizards in the other dimension. And it seems like if you make any sound at all in this area, the black lizards will immediately swarm to its source, no matter how far away. As a result, the natives in this area typically don gear that dampens sound, including guns equipped with silencers. The natives of the region also are used to sensory deprivation, especially if deprived of hearing, using sight and feeling vibrations to know what’s coming.

### Looks to the Moon

The region of Looks to the Moon is not only the smallest of the inhabited regions, but also the most mysterious to the rest of the people native to the other dimension. The region has little contact with the rest of the dimension, with natives rarely, if ever, coming out of the region. Unbeknownst to everyone that lives in the region, the region plays host to the last bastion of the United States government in the other dimension. The entire region is, in essence, one massive research facility dedicated to studying LttM. No one assigned to work in the region can enter, and doing so is punishable with jail time. The iterator’s puppet fiercely protects her five remaining neuron flies, which the scientists have tried to take time and time again. After several repeated attempts, the team has given up on taking the neuron flies for study and have instead dedicated their efforts to translating the iterator’s speech. The translations at this time are crude, but somewhat reliable, similar to how Google translate does Japanese. The scientists working there believe that their translation efforts will become more sophisticated after three decades of studying moon’s speech.


	6. Timeline

_Mid 1980’s:_ Experimental teleportation technology developed in the Pentagon under presidential supervision to attempt to get the upper hand on the Warsaw Pact. Tesla coils and generators fail simultaneously, dimensional anomaly is created, which spews a large, bipedal insectoid wielding a sword-like weapon before the anomaly dissipates. At least 200 personnel were killed and 500 more seriously wounded before the entity was terminated via gunfire. The president at the time, Ronald Reagan, was among the injured.   
_1987-1988:_ Blood tests done on the survivors reveal that they were infected with an unknown pathogen. All attempts at curing the pathogen fail, but it does not spread. Pathogen is apparently inactive. All but one of the infected are quarantined except for Ronald Reagan.   
_1992:_ Second round of testing teleportation technology. The pathogen activates in the infected one by one. Symptoms include physical bloating, dementia-like symptoms, aggression towards the uninfected, increased physical strength, audiovisual hallucinations, a lack of self-care and large, luminescent orange cysts.   
_Early 2000’s:_ Portal to another dimension accidentally created, teleportation hopes forsaken in exchange for studying this other world. Several specimens are taken into custody and dissected or placed into care.   
_April 14th, 2016:_ The last infected, Amelia Nikolayev, dies at the age of 74. Tissue samples taken into study.  
_September 8th, 2024_ : Several flying specimens escape from secure facility en masse, roosting in Concord, New Hampshire. Recovery efforts end in failure.  
_September 10th, 2024:_ Cross-dimensional technology revealed to the wider public, with the location of the main portal revealed as well.  
_June 30th, 2031:_ Several more portals are built in various areas across the world, all of them leading to the same dimension. Many people come to the other dimension to escape Earth. Fauna from the other dimension also crosses over to Earth, but fails to establish thriving populations outside of urban areas.  
_January 29th, 2037:_ The first non-human sapient civilization is discovered in the other dimension. Natives are named ‘scavengers’ by humanity.  
_March 7th, 2037:_ Scavengers become established in urban areas.  
_May 9th, 2040:_ Scavengers become an accepted part of society in Japan and Korea.  
_July 2nd, 2041:_ Tensions between humans and scavengers rise on Earth. Many tribes are exiled from the cities they live in. These tribes come to form the first micronation scavenger tribes.  
_October 30th, 2046:_ Violence breaks out in Times Square when a member of the Proud Boys pushes a scavenger into oncoming traffic. The scavenger is run over and killed, with the scavenger’s tribe nearly immediately impaling him through the skull with a spear.  
_November 1st, 2046:_ A massive influx of homicides against scavengers across the United States committed by various far-right groups, christian fundamentalist organizations, police officers, and conspiracy theorists sparks what would later be known as the Second American Civil War. Though the full death toll is unknown, rough estimates are assumed to be in the millions, with tribes donning battle trophies taken from said organizations to commemorate victory. Many groups that participated in violence against these scavengers were later rendered extinct, including the Ku Klux Klan. One famous image of the event, labeled “ _ **Repent For Your Sins**_ ”, depicts the Westboro Baptist Church burning with the church’s leader at the time, Amanda Phelps-Roper being dragged away by the hair by a scavenger. Said scavenger is wearing several of the church’s signs as trophies. Similar such riots occur in certain countries across the globe. These waves of scavenger uprisings across the globe later become known as _**The Fight for Freedom**_.  
_November 12th, 2046:_ The Chinese Communist Party dissolves under a wave of scavenger revolts. Investigations reveal that the government was using scavs as slaves, with one scene from the incident showing a scavenger tribe piloting a tank.  
_December 20th, 2046:_ The Second American Civil War ends with the passing of the 28th Amendment, officially making scavengers citizens in the USA.  
_August 18th, 2047:_ The extra-dimensional colony officially accepts scavengers as part of society, though regions surrounding the Subterranean are slow to catch up.  
_November 7th, 2048:_ The extra dimensional colony formally secedes from the United States and various other nations, becoming a single nation.  
_April 4th, 2054:_ The last scavenger uprisings end on earth, officially ending the Fight for Freedom. In total, some 251 million people were killed globally by the uprisings, with the amount of scavengers killed during the uprisings numbering up to 50 million. Approximately 127 micronation tribes were formed as a result of the Fight for Freedom.  
_2061:_ Tensions between scavengers and humans on earth begin to heal.  
_December 30th, 2082:_ Scavengers are officially accepted as part of society by the rest of the world.  
_September 22nd, 2091:_ The last region in the other dimension, Looks to the Moon, officially accepts scavengers as part of society.  
_August 18th, 2099:_ Present Day.


End file.
